and that the general order for suspension was "not one of necessity, but one of prudence and defense."^"
One of the several methods by which the Government financed the war was the printing and circulation of bills of various denominations called "greenbacks." These were bills of credit issued against the United States Government. In 1864 nearly three dollars in greenbacks was needed to purchase one dollar in gold. During these uncertain days, Owen was staunch in his support of this Government policy. He pointed out that these bills were absolutely necessary to carry on the war. He called them "money borrowed on the future" and rightly insisted that, if the Union did stand, every dollar's worth of greenbacks would be redeemed at parity value.^^ Redemption was ultimately effected in 1879.
The bill which created the forerunner of our present national banking system was passed by Congress in 1863 and amended in 1864. The system greatly aided in the stabilization of the currency of the North during and after the war. In view of the evils of the historic state banking methods, Owen saw the national banks as the models for future state banks in which bonds of the various states would form a portion of the collateral of these institutions in the same manner as United States Government bonds were to be used in the newly created national banks. He also predicted that the new unified system would serve to strengthen the bonds of unity after the war. In fact he went so far as to state that "the most desirable end (national banks) will overbalance many of the evils of secession and will prove one of the most efficient means of harmonizing the rebellious elements and reconciling the Southern States to their subjugation as equal members of the great national confederacy. "22 Here Owen appears to have advocated acceptance of the rebel states on equal terms after their surrender, an idea which he changed several times during the course of the war.
When the Civil War began, Lincoln, as commander-in-chief of the military forces of the nation, authorized the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus along the lines of march between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. This area was later extended by Presidential proclamation. Congress authorized that the writ be suspended in July 1863. Some local criticism of Congress must have been immediate, because on July 1 8 Owen wrote that the action by Congress was justified in view of the fact that in wartime the "civil processes are entirely too sluggish to meet certain emergencies." He added that it was the duty of the President to suppress the rebellion by legal means if possible, but "at any rate to do it." As an afterthought he wrote that it was only the "Peace Democrats" who were continually finding fault with the administration. 2^
Proposals for the post-war reconstruction of the South only briefly occupied the attention of the editor of the Mercury. After a little more than a year of war had passed, Owen was of the opinion that the only way to settle
